Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A switch, comprising: chunking circuitry configured to maintain a local copy of a chunk comprising a plurality of media access control (MAC) addresses, wherein a respective MAC address in the local copy of the chunk is associated with an indicator indicating that the MAC address is learned at a remote switch, and wherein the switch and the remote switch are members of a network of interconnected switches; MAC synchronization circuitry configured to: obtain, from a message from the remote switch, a copy of the chunk and validation information associated with the chunk; and determine whether to update the local copy of the chunk based on the validation information from the message.
2. The switch of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of media access control (MAC) addresses are associated with devices coupled to a virtual link aggregation group (VLAG), wherein the VLAG includes a plurality of links operating as a single logical link.
3. The switch of claim 1 , wherein the MAC synchronization circuitry is further configured to store a checksum with the local copy of the chunk.
4. The switch of claim 3 , wherein the MAC synchronization circuitry determines whether to update the local copy of the chunk by: obtaining a checksum from the validation information; and determining whether the obtained checksum is different than the stored checksum.
5. The switch of claim 4 , wherein the MAC synchronization circuitry is further configured to: in response to determining that the obtained checksum is different than the stored checksum, construct a response message for the remote switch, wherein the response message indicates the difference; determine, based on a confirmation message from the remote switch, that the difference is not a race condition; and update the local copy of the chunk with the obtained copy of the chunk.
6. The switch of claim 1 , wherein updating the local copy of the chunk includes one or more of: adding entries associated with a difference between the local copy of the chunk and the obtained copy of the chunk; deleting entries associated with the difference between the local copy of the chunk and the obtained copy of the chunk; and performing no operation for entries common to the local copy of the chunk and the obtained copy of the chunk.
7. The switch of claim 1 , wherein the message further comprises a chunk identifier, which identifies the chunk.
8. A method, comprising: maintaining, by a switch, a local copy of a chunk comprising a plurality of media access control (MAC) addresses, wherein a respective MAC address of the chunk is associated with an indicator indicating that the MAC address is learned at a remote switch, and wherein the switch and the remote switch are members of a network of interconnected switches; obtaining, from a message from the remote switch, a copy of the chunk and validation information associated with the chunk; and determining whether to update the local copy of the chunk based on the validation information from the message.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of media access control (MAC) addresses are associated with devices coupled to a virtual link aggregation group (VLAG), wherein the VLAG includes a plurality of links operating as a single logical link.
10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising storing a checksum with the local copy of the chunk.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein determining whether to update the local copy of the chunk comprises: obtaining a checksum from the validation information; and determining whether the obtained checksum is different than the stored checksum.
12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising: in response to determining that the obtained checksum is different than the stored checksum, construct a response message for the remote switch, wherein the response message indicates the difference; determine, based on a confirmation message from the remote switch, that the difference is not a race condition; and update the local copy of the chunk with the obtained copy of the chunk.
13. The method of claim 10 , wherein updating the local copy of the chunk includes one or more of: adding entries associated with a difference between the local copy of the chunk and the obtained copy of the chunk; deleting entries associated with the difference between the local copy of the chunk and the obtained copy of the chunk; and performing no operation for entries common to the local copy of the chunk and the obtained copy of the chunk.
14. The method of claim 8 , wherein the message further comprises a chunk identifier, which identifies the chunk.
15. A computing system, comprising: a processor; and a storage device storing instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising: maintaining, by a switch, a local copy of a chunk comprising a plurality of media access control (MAC) addresses, wherein a respective MAC address of in the local copy the chunk is associated with an indicator indicating that the MAC address is learned at a remote switch, and wherein the switch and the remote switch are members of a network of interconnected switches; obtaining, from a message from the remote switch, a copy of the chunk and validation information associated with the chunk; and determining whether to update the local copy of the chunk based on the validation information from the message.
16. The computing system of claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises storing a checksum with the local copy of the chunk.
17. The computing system of claim 16 , wherein determining whether to update the local copy of the chunk comprises: obtaining a checksum from the validation information; and determining whether the obtained checksum is different than the stored checksum.
18. The computing system of claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises: in response to determining that the obtained checksum is different than the stored checksum, construct a response message for the remote switch, wherein the response message indicates the difference; determine, based on a confirmation message from the remote switch, that the difference is not a race condition; and update the local copy of the chunk with the obtained copy of the chunk.
19. The computing system of claim 15 , wherein updating the local copy of the chunk includes one or more of: adding entries associated with a difference between the local copy of the chunk and the obtained copy of the chunk; deleting entries associated with the difference between the local copy of the chunk and the obtained copy of the chunk; and performing no operation for entries common to the local copy of the chunk and the obtained copy of the chunk.
20. The computing system of claim 15 , wherein the message further comprises a chunk identifier, which identifies the chunk.
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September 26, 2017
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